A ‘Sick Stadium’ and a lot of history

The Seattle Pilots barely made it to the starting line in 1969, their first and only season in the American League.

They rushed contractors to complete new seating sections to boost the capacity of their former minor league stadium on Rainier Avenue.

Carpenters were still hammering nails and painters were praying that new paint would dry on the outfield fences before the opening pitch.

Half an hour before gametime I was summoned to the radio booth. The broadcaster for the visiting Chicago White Sox wanted to interview somebody from Seattle who could answer an improbable question.

Looking around at the incomplete construction, he smiled broadly and then asked:

Is the official name of this ballpark actually "Sick Stadium."

I tried to explain that the official designation was Sicks' Stadium, created by brewer Emil Sick who named his beer after a mountain.

I really needed Dan Raley to provide a more coherent response.

Because for a lot of years Sicks' Stadium was the home to heroes like Fred Hutchinson, Kewpie Dick Barrett, Jim Rivera and Rogers Hornsby.

Raley worked in the same Seattle Post-Intelligencer sports department with me for several years and he could easily have cited a dozen other hallowed names of men who played and starred at Sicks' Stadium.

Raley wrote a book about that golden era and he will be at the Edmonds Book Shop at noon Saturday (May 26) to meet with local baseball fans and to explain why the book he has on sale is called "Pitchers of Beer."

Dan was the unofficial P-I sports department historian, interested in the background stories and fascinating legends of individuals and organizations from the Seattle Rainiers and Cheney Studs to the Garfield Bulldogs and Franklin Quakers.

John Owen was graduated in journalism from the University of Montana where he met his wife, Alice.

He served as a military cryptographer in the Army during the Korean conflict.

Owen worked for the Bismarck Tribune and Yakima Herald then spent 40 years at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, most of that time as sports editor, sports columnist and as author of a weekly Intermediate Eater cooking column.

He was named Sportswriter of the Year in the State of Washington on seven occasions and covered six Olympiads.

He was in San Francisco during the Earthquake World Series and traveled to Zaire with Muhammad Ali and George Foreman for "The Rumble in the Jungle."

Owen has written nine books on sports, travel and food. He also served on occasion as restaurant critic for the Post-Intelligencer.

Upon his semi-retiriement he moved to the Edmonds Bowl and with his wife established that as their base for extensive world travel. They recently signed on for their 22nd Roads Scholar trip.

They have also traveled with Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door excursions and with Untours which allowed them to take up temporary residence in sites like Venice, Italy and Locarno, Switzerland.

The Owens are film buffs and for the past six years have attended the Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Alice is a professional artist and a longtime member of the Northwest Watercolor Society and Women Painters of Washington.

The Beacon columnist and his wife reside a lob shot away from the petanque courts on Civic Field, Edmonds' equivalent of Yankee Stadium.